Legal Services Award pay guide: rates, penalties and classifications 2026/2027

Pick a classification, a day and an employment type to see the FY2026/27 rate. The calculator reads the same Fair Work pay-guide data as the tables below, so the two can never disagree.

If you employ legal secretaries, paralegals, law clerks or law graduates in private practice, this is the award that sets your floor.

• Award: Legal Services Award 2020 [MA000116]
• Rates below apply from: the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026 (FY2026/27)
• Lowest adult rate: $28.24/hr ($1,073.10/week) — Legal clerical and administrative employee, level 1
• Highest classification: $36.03/hr ($1,369.20/week) — Law clerk, level 6
• Casual loading: 25%, stacked on top of penalty rates
• Saturday: 150% · Sunday: 200% · Public holiday: 250%
• Juniors: 45% of the adult rate under 16, rising to 90% at age 20
• Not covered: admitted solicitors doing legal work — see who the award covers

Casual work is common in legal support roles — overflow document production, court runners, holiday cover. These are the casual rates for ordinary hours, Monday to Friday, generated live from the Fair Work pay guide data:

The Legal Services Award 2020 [MA000116] is the modern award covering employees in the legal services industry — principally the support staff of private legal practices. It sets minimum hourly and weekly rates, penalty rates, overtime, allowances and shift loadings for seven classifications, from entry-level legal administration up to law clerk.

It sits alongside, not instead of, the National Employment Standards. The NES sets leave, notice and maximum hours; the award sets the money and the classification structure. Where the two overlap, the more generous applies.

Two features make this award different from the office awards it is often confused with:

1. It has a graduate and clerk stream. A law graduate not yet admitted, and a law clerk carrying substantive file work, each have their own classification — level 5 and level 6 respectively.
2. It carries a full shiftwork schedule. Most legal practices never use it, but the award does provide early-morning, afternoon/night and permanent-night loadings for practices that run extended-hours document or support teams.

• Legal secretaries and legal administration staff in private practice
• Paralegals and practice administrators
• Law clerks carrying file work under a supervising practitioner
• Law graduates who have not yet been admitted

• Admitted solicitors doing legal work. An admitted practitioner performing professional legal work is not covered by MA000116 for that work. Most firms employ solicitors on common-law contracts above any award floor.
• Partners and principals, who are not employees at all.
• Staff of in-house legal teams in another industry, who usually fall under the award covering that employer’s industry — a legal assistant employed by a bank is more likely on the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award than MA000116.
• Contractors, who have no award coverage at all — though genuinely misclassified employees do. See ABN or employee before you rely on that.

These are the adult full-time and part-time minimum rates, effective the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Part-time employees are paid the same hourly rate as full-time employees — the difference is hours, not price.

The weekly figure assumes a 38-hour week. A part-time employee working 22 hours a week at level 3 is paid 22 × $31.11, not a proportion of the weekly figure — they arrive at the same place, but only because the hourly rate is the real number.

Classification is decided by the work actually performed, not by the job title on the contract or what the employee is called around the office. A “legal assistant” performing level 4 duties is a level 4 employee.

Employees under 21 are paid a percentage of the adult rate for their own classification. The table below shows the percentages, with the dollar figure worked out on the level 1 rate:

The casual rate looks generous until you price the leave it replaces. The 25% loading is compensation for the annual leave, personal leave, notice and redundancy a casual does not get — it is not a premium for flexibility, and it is not optional.

Every casual you engage must also be given the Casual Employment Information Statement, and — this is the part that catches firms out — re-issued it during employment, at 6 and 12 months and then annually for most employers.

MA000116 distinguishes day workers from shiftworkers, and the distinction changes what weekend work costs. For a day worker — which describes almost everyone in a conventional practice — ordinary hours are Monday to Friday, and weekend work is overtime.

Overtime escalates by hours worked, not by clock time:

• Monday to Friday: 150% for the first 3 hours, 200% after that
• Saturday before noon: 150% for the first 3 hours, 200% after that
• Saturday after noon: 200% from the first hour
• Sunday: 200%
• Continuous shiftworkers, any day: 200%
• Working on a rostered day off: 150% for the first 3 hours Monday to Saturday, then 200%; 200% on a Sunday; 250% on a public holiday
• Called back after finishing: 150% for the first 3 hours, then 200%
• Less than 10 hours’ break between shifts: 200% until released for a 10-hour break
• Delayed meal break: 150% until the break is taken

These apply to shiftworkers only. The percentages are of the base hourly rate; the dollar column is level 1:

Allowances are paid on top of the hourly rate and are easy to miss, because none of them appear in a payroll system unless someone puts them there.

Leave comes from the National Employment Standards rather than the award, so it is the same in a legal practice as anywhere else:

• Annual leave: 4 weeks per year for full-time employees, pro-rata for part-time, accruing progressively
• Personal/carer’s leave: 10 days per year, pro-rata for part-time
• Compassionate leave: 2 days per occasion
• Parental leave: up to 12 months unpaid, with a right to request a further 12
• Long service leave: set by state legislation, not the award — see the NSW, Victorian, Queensland, South Australian and Western Australian guides
• Casuals get none of the paid entitlements above — that is what the 25% loading is for

Superannuation is 12% of ordinary time earnings, and from 1 July 2026 it must be paid on each pay run under payday super rather than quarterly.

Every one of these is something an audit finds, not something a payroll system flags:

1. Applying the casual loading to the penalty rate. A casual Sunday is base × 2.25, not (base × 2.00) × 1.25. The second calculation overpays.
2. Treating Saturday as a flat 150%. For a day worker it escalates to 200% after 3 hours.
3. Paying juniors a percentage of the level 1 rate. The percentage applies to the employee’s own classification.
4. Classifying by title. A “legal assistant” doing level 4 work is a level 4 employee whatever the contract says.
5. Using the Clerks Award rates by mistake. The two awards cover different industries and pay differently.
6. Assuming an admitted solicitor is award-covered. Usually they are not — but check rather than assume, in both directions.
7. Forgetting the CEIS re-issue. Giving it once at onboarding leaves you non-compliant from the first anniversary.
8. Missing the 1 July change. Rates move every year from the first full pay period on or after 1 July.

• The Legal Services Award floor runs from $28.24/hr at level 1 to $36.03/hr at law clerk level 6
• The 25% casual loading stacks on penalties: Saturday 175%, Sunday 225%, public holiday 275%
• Weekend work for a day worker is overtime, and Saturday escalates from 150% to 200% after 3 hours
• Juniors run from 45% under 16 to 90% at 20, applied to their own classification’s rate
• Admitted solicitors doing legal work are generally outside the award — verify rather than assume
• Rates change from the first full pay period on or after 1 July each year